Back to the Office

We had Wednesday and Thursday off from work so we made a quick trip home to check on the house and pick-up things we forgot to bring with us originally. This morning, Friday, we are back at the workplace, which for us are the beaches of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Our assigned area today was the beach out from the Oregon Dunes Day Use Area, which means a hike of a mile out over the sand dunes, through the deflation plain, and over the fore dunes to reach the beach. In the above photo Jeanette is checking through a group of Sanderlings.  The lower photo is a close up of a few of the 150 we estimate we saw today.  Sanderlings, a member the Sandpiper Family, are not the birds we are concerned with which are the Western Snowy Plover of which we only saw four. Our job is to interface with beach users to inform them about the importance of staying on the wet sand and staying away from the dry sand on which the Plovers nest.

A Snowy Plover Up Close

This weekend I got to see and photograph my first Western Snowy Plover up close.  I've been getting a glance of them while we cruise down the beach in the back seat of the ranger's truck, but this is the first chance I've had to see one while on foot, and it was totally unexpected. I was walking through an unrestricted area that is normally heavily used by people, but because it was 9:00 on a Sunday morning I was the only one there, when suddenly I saw movement a short distance in front of me and realized it was a Western Snowy Plover. These are tiny sparrow sized birds that blend in with the sand and debris on the beach, making them hard to spot until they move.  I stood as still as possible and snapped 20 or so photos. It was gratifying to get to see the bird that is the reason we are here.  We spend many hours each day talking to people on the beaches, trails and parking lots, about the importance of staying away from the nesting areas, but we rarely actually get to see the little guys we seek to protect.

Bonaparte's Gull

Bonaparte's Gull is named for zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. A widespread gull, it is one of the smallest. In Oregon it is a migrant, passing through in the Spring to breed far north in the Arctic, and back through in the fall to winter further South.  Jeanette's sharp eye's picked out this gull as different than the others collected on the beach in the area of the Carter Lake Trail yesterday. I was almost giddy as I clicked of some photos for later identification, knowing it was a gull I did not know. When I checked my bird Apps on my iPhone it was clear it was a non-breeding Bonaparte's Gull.  It's a "Lifer" for us, meaning the first time we have seen and identified this species.

First Day of Work

After a week of training, we got to have our first day of work in our volunteer position. This selfie was taken at the Waxmyrtle Trailhead this morning where we started the day with a hike out to the beach. At the beach we checked out some footprints entering the restricted area, because that's a part of our job to report any trespassers into the Snowy Plover nesting areas.  But a closer inspection revealed these to be deer tracks, so no reporting.

 We hiked north on the beach to the mouth of the Siltcoos River, then south to the Carter Lake Trailhead, where we took a lunch break.  From there our ranger picked us up and drove us down the beach to the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek where we helped install signs warning of Snowy Plover nesting and restricted information.

Our ranger took us back up the beach as far as the Carter Lake Trail, and then we hiked back to the Waxmyrtle Trail and back to our RV. It's obvious that we are going to get a lot of hiking in, and that's a good thing.  I think my biggest fear in coming here for the summer was that we might get bored, but today put that worry away, we will get tired, but we will certainly not get bored. We also checked in with a Predator Control officer, met one of the Nest Monitors, and got to witness a contact with people trespassing on the beach with their dogs. 

Critters of the Campground

We are enjoying our stay here at Waxmyrtle Campground in the Siltcoos Recreation Area.  Every time we step out of our RV we immediately hear a bird that we know and enjoy.  But, not only are we enjoying the many birds, there is a good population of critters scampering around.  The most vocal are Douglas Squirrels. This morning I did a brief walk around the campground before we left for more training in Reedsport and took the following two photos.

 Townsend's Chipmunk (Tarmias townendii)

Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani)

Tahkenitch Creek Trail

Today was another training day, this one was centered in Reedsport and the Oregon Dunes National Scenic Area. As with each of the last four training days, we managed to take a few minutes out of a tight schedule to recharge our batteries.  For today's outing we managed a quick 20 minutes on the Tahkenitch Creek Trail, one of our old favorites when we lived in near-by Elkton. Jeanette is shown here pausing to listen for Red Cross-bills.

Birding By Ear

Jeanette is shown here early in the morning listening for birds on the Lagoon Loop Trail in the Siltcoos Recreation Area. It adds a real dimension of joy to be able to identify a bird just by its song. Some times it provides the only clue that a bird is around. More and more we are getting better at bird identification by ear and it speeds up the process of birding when you don't have to actually see a bird to be able to identify it.  For example one of the most numerous birds we have here are Wrentits, and today we heard a total of at least 10 different Wrentits, but I think we only saw two and that was after coaxing them out with our iPhone. For the last two mornings we have taken Buster out for a walk and some birding before our day starts with working with the ranger, seems to be a good system.